


Broken Star(k) Wishes

by tisfan



Series: Imagine Tony and Bucky 2016/2017 [19]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Groundhog Day AU, Love at First Sight, M/M, same shit same day, wish on a star
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 23:07:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10796655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tisfan/pseuds/tisfan
Summary: Groundhog Day meets the avengers before Bucky and Tony get together. The same day keeps happening, but Bucky is the only one to remember and at the end of each day something bad happens before it restarts, I don't know? Maybe the only way for time to move forward is to fix whatever keeps going wrong or to save someone??





	Broken Star(k) Wishes

_(Love at Four Hundred and Seventy-Eighth Sight)_

> If your heart is in your dream  
>  No request is too extreme  
>  When you wish upon a star  
>  As dreamers do  
>  Fate is kind
> 
> \-- Disney
> 
> That is fucking _bullshit_.
> 
> \-- Tony Stark

 

Bucky Barnes was having what one might call A FUCKING TERRIBLE DAY.

It was pouring down rain. He got back splashed by a car on the way to the subway, soaking his suit pants and getting mud splatters on an exceptionally expensive white shirt. He had to give a very important presentation at the advertising firm where he worked. If they landed the contract, Bucky’s job would have been secured for the next two years at _least_.

Stark Industries didn’t take the contract.

He got a dressing down from his direct manager about his unprofessional appearance. And while he hadn’t lost his job that day, he was pretty sure he was going to.

Thus, bar.

Thus, drinks.

Thus many, _many_ drinks.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” Someone asked him. Bucky didn’t mind the idea of going home with some random stranger and getting fucked straight through the mattress. “Or should I walk by again?”

Bucky rolled his eyes, then shifted his neck. He hadn’t actually seen the person the first time. He focused his vodka-blurred gaze.

Tony Stark. The head of goddamn Stark Industries, who could not even be bothered to come to his goddamn presentation. Who was going to cost him his fucking job.

And there had been quite a lot of vodka involved. Bucky had one split second of rational thought before deciding he’d let the vodka take the blame. He balled up his fist and took a swing at Stark.

… the jail cell was very nice.

***

When Bucky’s alarm went off, he was completely shocked. He didn’t remember getting out of the drunk tank. Not that he hadn’t had blackout drunks before, but he didn’t think that’s what had happened. He stared at his clock, still _bwank bwank bwank_ ing at him with relentless energy.

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed,” Sam yelled, banging on the wall between their bedrooms. “You’re goan miss your presentation.”

_What?_

Bucky got out of bed. It was pouring outside. He checked his phone. April 19th.

April 19th was _yesterday_.

“Glitch in the Matrix,” Bucky muttered. He hauled himself into the bathroom and showered.

His suit was laying across the back of his chair, just where he’d left it on the 18th. Bucky blinked. Got dressed. Checked his emails. No angry messages from Hand, his boss.

Feeling ill-at-ease and off balanced, Bucky finished getting ready for work. Grabbed his laptop and was out the door.

It was pouring.

A car back splashed him, but he managed to turn at the right time, keeping his shirt mostly clean.

Gave his presentation.

Stark Industries didn’t take the contract.

Bucky spent the whole day with a surreal sense of deja vu. Found himself completing other people’s sentences. Decided a drink would be just the thing after work.

One drink became several.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” Tony Stark asked him. “Or should I walk by again?”

… the jail cell was still really nice.

***

_bwank bwank bwank_

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed,” Sam yelled, banging on the wall between their bedrooms. “You’re goan miss your presentation.”

“I’m not going,” Bucky said. He smashed his alarm clock against the wall, rolled over, went back to sleep. Pointless.

***

_bwank bwank bwank_

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed,” Sam yelled, banging on the wall between their bedrooms. “You’re goan miss your presentation.”

Got up. Didn’t shower. Went into the office in a tee shirt and jeans. Told Stark Industries to get bent.

Got fired. Got drunk.

Punched Tony Stark.

… the jail cell was really nice.

***

_bwank bwank bwank_

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed,” Sam yelled, banging on the wall between their bedrooms. “You’re goan miss your presentation.”

Jumped out in traffic.

***

_bwank bwank bwank_

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed,” Sam yelled, banging on the wall between their bedrooms. “You’re goan miss your presentation.”

Bucky pulled the blankets over his head. No. No no no no no.

***

Went through the day in a haze. Gave the presentation. Stark Industries didn’t take the contract. Went to the bar.

“Do you believe in love at first --”

“Yes. Wanna fuck?”

The bed in Tony’s penthouse was a lot nicer than jail.

***

“For fuck’s sake, Buck. Get your ass out of bed!”

“Oh, _come_ on!”

***

Bucky didn’t bother to go to work. He waited until an hour or so before the club opened. Watched from the rooftop, using his old sniper’s gear. Started tracking Tony. Where had he come from? The next day, he was a few blocks down. Tracking him backward through his day.

Took a few days’ vacation from that to meet up with Tony at the bar and fuck him. That was nice. Sometimes they even talked first. Gently, gingerly, Bucky started prying at information. What did Tony do, how had his day been. Got him talking.

Tracked him backward some more. Why hadn’t Tony Stark gone to the presentation? It was supposed to be a big deal. Stark Industries was getting out of the weapons manufacturing business. Clean energy, sustainable food sources, clean water, modular homes… what had gone wrong?

***

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“No,” Bucky said, honestly. “But you can walk by again, if you want.”

***

Eventually, Bucky tracked Tony all the way back. He was having to hurry; whatever happened, there wasn’t much time to spare. No matter what Bucky did, he couldn’t seem to wake up before his alarm went off. If he couldn’t find the glitch point…

Ten a.m. Manhattan. Tony was getting into his car. The driver didn’t follow the right route to Stark Industries HQ. They stopped, instead, in a back alley. A few minutes later, the driver walked away.

A pale and shaken Tony got out of the back seat, got into the driver’s seat and drove to his office.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“Yes.”

***

Bucky already knew he could die. He also knew it didn’t matter.

Which was good, because trying to interrupt Tony’s driver resulted in him getting shot in the face.

***

Not much time. How the hell could he stop Tony from getting in that car? Whatever happened, it happened there.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“Yes.”

Later, cooling from the sweat and exertion, “Tell me a secret.”

Tony leaned up on his elbow and traced patterns down Bucky’s chest. “What kind of secret?”

“I don’t know, something you’ve never told anyone, no matter how trivial or stupid,” Bucky smiled, his most charming. He kissed Tony, god, he was getting really familiar with the taste of Tony’s mouth, the feel of that lithe body against his.

“I wished on a star last night,” Tony said, dreamily. “Falling star. In New York City. I mean, who can even see the stars in this light-noise hellhole?”

“What did you wish for?”

“You’re not supposed to tell someone what you wished for, until it comes true,” Tony said, sly and smiling. Bucky kissed him some more.

“Did it?”

“I don’t know,” Tony confessed, gazing up at him through dark lashes. “Do you love me?”

Bucky stared.

“Stupid question, forget I asked,” Tony said, face going rigid and shuttered. He was out of the bed before Bucky could say another word, shutting himself up in the bathroom.

Bucky sat outside the bathroom door, waiting. His chest ached and he couldn’t explain it. Dozens, hundreds of first meetings, and he knew the man better than he knew himself. Little things, the casual sort of shit you said on a first date. Sometimes deeper conversations in the cooling heat of sex, the warm afterglow. Bucky’d seen Tony’s face a hundred times in the grip of ecstasy. Taken his pleasure in Tony’s body a hundred different ways.

***

It took him almost a dozen attempts to get close enough to the car to hear what was going on in there.

Tony was being threatened; Bucky grimaced. A rival company wanted Tony to ditch the advertising campaign. Well, that made sense, but… that was all? Bucky got a glimpse into the car (tinted windows were so awful for spying.) and saw that Tony was being shown a camera view from another sniper position.

It was his _goddamn office_. Bucky’s office. Where the presentation was supposed to be, in three hours time. “Take this advertising offer and we will shoot this perfect stranger in front of you.”

Jesus Christ.

Bucky pressed a hand over his heart, as if he’d already been shot.

He didn’t have enough time to track this shit backward. Or… no, that wasn’t the answer right now. Track it _forward_.

***

Weeks. It was taking him weeks. He worked a few days, met up with Tony a few times a week. Cuddled. Kissed. Fucked. He needed to protect Tony from this. Find the guy responsible. Figure out how to end the threat.

***

It took Bucky sixty-one attempts to find the mastermind. To get the man to confess the plans at the end of a knife.

Obadiah Stane. His plan, such as it was, to disrupt Tony’s better living through technology plans. Get the weapons department back online. Kill Tony. Take over Stark Industries.

Bucky shot the man.

Twice.

***

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“No,” Bucky said. “But I love you.”

***

Bucky intercepted Tony right outside his penthouse. He was only barely in time, having run in the rain across town as soon as his alarm went off in the morning.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Tony, can we talk, I just need five minutes.”

***

“Who the hell are you?”

“You wished on a star last night,” Bucky said, desperate. “To fall in love. Okay, okay, it worked, I’m here. Please, I need you to listen to me.”

The suspicious look on Tony’s face was priceless. Would have been funny, if Bucky wasn’t so damn scared. “I’m listening.”

Bucky told him everything; about the repeating days, about Stane’s plans, about their own long, desperate affair that happened every day and had never happened at all.

Tony didn’t look like he believed Bucky. That was understandable. Bucky wasn’t sure he believed Bucky.

“What’s your plan, then?” Tony asked, leaning back in his chair.

“I ain’t got one,” Bucky said. “I’m trying to get through this goddamn day one minute at a time. I thought maybe you could help me.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“I got this far, right? So, tomorrow you can skip some steps in planning and I can try again,” Bucky said. “We just gotta figure this out so I can move forward. We can move forward.”

“Do you love me?”

Bucky took a deep breath, looked up. “I do.”

***

Bucky got shot another dozen times before he was able to take his own potential murderer captive.

(The fifth time he got shot, he spent the next two cycles with Tony, shivering and desperate and letting Tony comfort him in the best way he knew how.)

Between that and the recording Tony got from the driver, the cops tried to arrest Stane, who took the coward’s way out.

Another four tries after that, they managed to capture Stane alive and arrest him.

Tony watched, curious, as Stane was loaded into the cop car, spitting and snarling obscenities at Tony.

“Do you think that’ll end the cycle?”

“I don’t know,” Bucky admitted. “Maybe you need to take the advertising contract?” He touched Tony’s face. It was nice, these last few cycles, Tony knowing the truth. Tony believing him. Tony _loving_ him.

“Okay.” Tony made a few calls to his various people. “It’s done. We’ll take Stark Industries to its bright new future, together.”

Bucky slanted a glance at Tony. “Do _you_ believe in love at first sight?”

“I can walk by again, if you want.”

That night, for the first time, they went back to Bucky’s place. Sam was… not pleased.

***

_bwank bwank bwank_

“For fuck’s sake, Buck,” Sam pounded on the thin wall between their rooms. “Get your ass out of bed.”

Bucky sighed. Smacked the alarm. Rolled over. His hand came down on a warm shoulder.

“Oh, hey, gorgeous,” Tony said. He snuggled against Bucky’s chest. “Alright. Good job, Bucky. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day.”

“That sounds great.”

“Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“No,” Bucky said. “But you do. Open your eyes, baby. I’m here.”


End file.
